Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread

[GhoulEddie74]

It's all good, I wasn't offended. "Druggie" just became the shorthand to describe fictional characters like Raffi who had dependency issues, even if the character was far more three-dimensional and their drug use was only part of their overall personality.

 

[Donald G]

WTF????

It could be worse. At least he's not suggesting that Gul Madred torture Picard by having a Gorn use him as a breeding sac.

 

[Jayson Poorknees]

With Raffi though they did have her talk about Picard and his fancy mansion. That is why I think we suppose to feel like she has hit rock bottom. She lost her respected job as first officer, which if they had money would be a big paycheck. Without the fancy job she is now poor living in a trailer getting high and still filled with conspiracy theories. At least they didn't turn subspace into the internet and have her broadcasting across the Federation.

Granted it just doesn't work well in the Trek universe. Even her 'shack" is better than most well off peoples homes in the present day and she has access to stuff even the super rich don't have access in the present day. Plus drug addiction is one of those modern days problems the evolved humans have figured out. Likely with more advanced medicine so I am not sure it even makes sense for their to be addicts in the future. The perfect 24th century shown in TNG really took lots of relatable things away from the franchise when set in that time period.

So you basically got to just pretend it sort of doesn't exist or just start setting shows in a different universe, already. Then you no longer have to worry about lots of canon talk. Though you will always have the "does this show feel like a Star Trek" show kind of talk.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

You could say it's not so much the living conditions as the thought that she has access to all sorts of opportunities, people, technology, arts, medical innovations and culture, (despite burning some bridges) and she chooses to waste these resources in favor of a lonely, addicted, nonproductive life.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

We can probably assume she has a personal transporter pad inside her modular home and could easily beam to a medical specialist's office if she so chose. She just chooses not to, and wallows in what she perceives as her failures in life, including her involvement with the Romulan evacuation fleet being organized by then-Admiral Picard.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Not to mention the fact that she was right about the Romulans. She was not engaging in paranoid fantasy or conspiracy theories, she was the only one who saw the truth and was summarily disregarded for it.

As for whether or not she has her own transporter pad, well Picard arrived by a taxi.

 

[Jayson Poorknees]

Not to mention the fact that she was right about the Romulans. She was not engaging in paranoid fantasy or conspiracy theories, she was the only one who saw the truth and was summarily disregarded for it.

As for whether or not she has her own transporter pad, well Picard arrived by a taxi.

How did he pay the taxi driver without money?

 

[fireproof78]

Plus drug addiction is one of those modern days problems the evolved humans have figured out.

Except they haven't. They can't help Holo addiction.

 

[Jayson Poorknees]

Except they haven't. They can't help Holo addiction.

That's like the only one. I actually think we have something like that today, with peoples addiction to the internet.

 

[fireproof78]

That's like the only one. I actually think we have something like that today, with peoples addiction to the internet.

Or video games but I doubt that addiction is just cured in the 24th century. Seems an assumption unless I'm missing some dialog, as Beverly is able to identify the response as being like an addict in the episode with the drug PSA.

 

[UssGlenn]

Or video games but I doubt that addiction is just cured in the 24th century. Seems an assumption unless I'm missing some dialog, as Beverly is able to identify the response as being like an addict in the episode with the drug PSA.

In "Symbiosis" there is no indication that the Federation has a cure for drug withdrawal symptoms. The closest we get is Beverly saying she should be able to develop a non addictive version of the drug.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

Felicium from those star systems might be painfully and life-threateningly addictive, but then we don't know just how potent and addictive snakeleaf is.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

Or video games but I doubt that addiction is just cured in the 24th century. Seems an assumption unless I'm missing some dialog, as Beverly is able to identify the response as being like an addict in the episode with the drug PSA.

The human brain's propensity for dopamine reward addiction via anything from video games to drugs to risk seeking will always be there because dopamine will always be there. I would be amazed if we can cure addiction in the 24th C.

 

[fireproof78]

If you can fix dopamine addiction in the 23rd season

The human brain's propensity for dopamine reward addiction via anything from video games to drugs to risk seeking will always be there because dopamine will always be there. I would be amazed if we can cure addiction in the 24th C.

I would too but that seems to be the assumption in this thread, and any of the objections to Raffi having an addiction on the utopian 24th century Earth.

 

[Starflight]

Having had addiction for years myself, it's definitely a neurological situation above all else; I'd be surprised if they can't fix it (especially given they can surgically remove people's memories and other weird shit). The experience of suddenly being cured would be odd and there would be some behavioural changes you'd need to make, but I don't see why they can't basically replicate the effects of a year of abstinence into your brain directly - which, in my experience, absolutely does end with the substance no longer occupying your thoughts and the sudden out-of-nowhere compulsion to relapse being absent most of the time.

The problem with Raffi would presumably be that she's not bothered enough to acquire treatment. You could also easily imagine a situation where addiction being easily cureable paradoxically makes people stick with it far longer - in real life, the eagerness to knuckle the fuck down and get through the fabled first 90 days is immense because you can feel yourself sinking further, but if Raffi knows she literally can stop anytime she wants by just going to a doctor and having a wand waved at her head, she'll be very relaxed about allowing herself to slide further and further into it.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

I would too but that seems to be the assumption in this thread, and any of the objections to Raffi having an addiction on the utopian 24th century Earth.

That's assuming a utopia exists where all maladies/Illness/trauma are ameliorated. I don't see it happening when so many mentally ill people just happened to wind up on the Enterprise logs.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

Reginald Barclay. I mean....the man is clearly troubled.

 

[No Grave Dug]

How did he pay the taxi driver without money?

Sheer Fucking arrogance...